Life — January 12, 1922 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Shimmying for Chamois in the Pyrenees RECENT writer in L’/llustration has done us all a great service by calling attention to the noble sport of chamois-hunting in the Pyrenees. The advantages of this sport over all others are not generally appreciated. While the loss of life is considerable, more dif- ferent muscles are undoubtedly brought into play than in any other pastime. For instance, in the act of playing golf it is estimated that, in walking from the first tee to the second, over three hundred muscles are used, but this is simply noth- ing at all to chamois-hunting. To keep from falling off one of the Pyrenees while bringing down a chamois, over three thousand muscles are employed constantly, and, indeed, a couple of mus- cles more or less may actually determine whether you get the chamois or whether you drop some thousands of feet into the beautiful valley of Gorganzola, where your dying moments may be lighted up by a glorious vista such as you have never dreamed of before. And if you linger on until the late afternoon, no pen can describe the glory of the sunset that you may be fortunate enough to witness. Once arrived at the Pyrenees, the expense is inconsid- erable. You need only a pair of stout golf shoes—the stouter the better—a carbine of six-millimetre calibre and a set of binoculars. It is best to catch one chamois as soon as possible, as by doing this you can use a part of his skin to keep your binoculars clean; otherwise, if there is a tiny spot on the lens, you may think it is a chamois when it really isn’t at all. With one chamois on hand for emer- gencies, you are then ready for more extensive operations. The chamois has a natural dread, amounting to.a ruling passion, of being bored by strangers, and you must there- fore employ great tact in approaching him. Even at a distance where he would not be able to hear you without leaning well forward and holding up both ears, do not in any circumstances open up the conversation by referring to the late League of Nations, the ad valorem duty on union suits schedule. K F O B Gor- ganzola, or the reasons ‘why Bernard Shaw will not visit America. It is far better to maintain a discreet silence, let- ting the chamois himself do all the talk- ing. If he has been up late the night “To Keep From Falling Off” “The Loss of Life Is—” before and his rest has been broken by the restless glaciers barking the trees on their downward flight, he will suspect that you are drawing near even before you can see him yourself. Then nothing on your part but invincible deter- mination and your highest rate of speed will enable you to get near enough to him to finish him off. In leaping from crag to crag, you should utterly forget yourself, for the slightest hesitancy on your part may give him such a start that you will lose him. If you should succeed in avoiding all the loose boulders at first, you will gradually acquire a sort of in- stinct, so that it will be second nature for you to land only on those points of rock that are firm, The fierce joy of nimble chamois hunter in being able to do this right along without any break must be experienced to be fully under- stood. It frequently compensates for the loss of a chamois or a leg. Some hunters add to their equipment a portable surgical outfit and a working set of splints, so that if they break a leg or so, they can do their setting on the spot. If one survives the first few expeditions, one rises above these refinements. No genuine chamois sportsman would ever be able to look a chamois 1n the face if he had a life-saving kit concealed anywhere about his person. T.£.M. He Bought ‘HE prospective customer had grown tired of the cc tinual bombardment of letters from a concern with whom the never expected to trade. After receiving the fiftieth letter in two months, he wrote a letter expressing in definite language his opinion of a firm that would waste a dollar in postage on an individual who was only bored by its letters. He received the following answer: “Dear Sir: We have turned your letter over to our fol- low-up man. We figure that one order from you would net us a hundred dollars’ profit and that a dollar or two in postage being at the most only two per cent. ex- pense on the returns is wisely expended. We hope you will read carefully and note the contents of the next fifty letters.” AFTER all, conceit isn’t such a wide- spread vice. It is conspicuous in only two sexes of the human race. comicbooks.com